It snowed down here in Memphis today. Here in the Mid-South (seriously, that’s what the region is called) snow is usually met with moderate, but reserved panic. People don’t quite know how to drive in it, since it’s usually only an issue a little under once a year, on average. Schools close, stores shut down early (in most cases, anyway) and everyone rushes to the grocery store to stockpile on food, all for snow that will more than likely melt within 2 days.
The number one thing on their agendas, and stuff that they will, dead serious, buy in bulk along with nothing else: milk and bread.
Apparently this is a common enough thing across the United States (at least in snow prone areas) and has variations, including alcohol and toilet paper. Regardless, I’ll be focusing on the trends here in Memphis for this one. Yes, we have had our occasional snowstorms (1985, and the 1994 Ice Storm come to mind) but otherwise when it snows it’s a minor event, and as I said before is mostly gone within a day. Why stockpile on anything? Shouldn’t your weekly purchase of groceries (or however you buy stuff) suffice? Why then buy additional milk and bread, multiple times your normal quantity of stuff, rather than just an additional supplement of varied food stuffs?
It wasn’t so bad at a local store, but I’ve seen shelves absolutely empty before. This is still far more than the average purchase rate for a day like today.
I mean, really, why have 3 loaves of bread if you don’t have any meat (or other sandwich making material of choice) with it? Why buy gallons of milk, a relatively expensive fluid, to go along with.. what exactly? Cereal? Do you really use milk that often for your day to day meal needs, or do you plan on just drinking it nonstop during the snow (which would be super expensive to do, compared to water, or the usual soft drinks people always have lying around)? Still, people will not just buy a normal load of groceries, if that, but they will over-buy on milk and bread, time and time again.
Then comes the concern of power loss. Sure, if you really wanted to you could preserve the milk in the cold of the snow, yes, but by that point you want to try to stay warm, and without power, unless you have gas cooking equipment (not common to any degree her in Memphis) you aren’t going to be heating up much of anything that needs milk as an ingredient.
This tradition seems to stem from the North, where snowstorms trapping people in their homes for a week or so are more common, and has bled it’s way south, where it just really isn’t as much of an issue. Seriously, the 2003 “Hurricane Elvis” event was worse than any snowstorm I’ve ever experienced, and what was the key issue with it? Infrastructure damage resulting in power loss.
What can you do then? Not much, I would think. Besides, when it’s cold you more than likely would want to eat hot things, so… the heck if I know!
I don’t know, this just felt like a good opportunity to rant about this little trend, as an odd aside from the normal. Incidentally I had to go to a store today, and I actually found items in good supply – this is probably due to the snow not being nearly as bad as people expected it to be, and resupply coming perfectly normally, as they would on a Friday.
Like I said, there are a ton of theories about this trend, but it doesn’t change that it’s rather hilarious in an area like Memphis. Enjoy those milk sandwiches people!